Ancestral Roofs

"In Praise of Older Buildings"

Saturday, November 9, 2013

Run of the Mill

Faithful correspondent Mark just observed that Ontario is blessed with a plenitude of old mills. I admit there are still many of them unvisited on my life list, but lately, thanks to a series my County and Quinte Living magazine editor Catherine has entrusted me with over the past few months, I have spent time in some mills that I have long admired.

Above, the Burrell Axe Factory which is believed to have been part of the Captain John Meyers mill complex in Belleville. I got to talk about it in Summer 2013,

And the Clapp-Scott Mill, linked to our family's story, on page 61 of the Summer 2013 issue.

Because I believe I have already given them my best in print, I include links to the issues of this fine magazine, where readers can find features on each of the mills I lovingly revisit here in photos.

I got to enjoy the hospitality at the Old Stockdale Mill and the rolicking Cascades Pub in Consecon in the Winter 2012 issue.

And this is just a glimpse (the one that's captivated me for years until the interview gave me an opportunity to venture closer) of a mill in Northumberland County which I have written about for the Winter 2013 issue of County and Quinte Living.

Great Architecture quotes

"The sins of the Architect are permanent sins" Frank Lloyd Wright, 1914

"In the end, we conserve only what we love. We will love only what we understand. We will understand only what we are taught." ~Baba Dioum, Senegalese poet (Posted in January on the ACO Acorn online)

"It is forbidden to disfigure external decorations on private buildings through modern additions and to spoil historic buildings in an important town out of avarice and the desire to make money." - Theodosius, Valentinianus, Arcadius (309 A.D.)

"It has been said that at its best, preservation engages the past in a conversation with the present over a mutual concern for the future" - William Murtagh (1988)

"Preservationists are the only people in the world who are invariably confirmed in their wisdom after the fact". - John Kenneth Galbraith (1979)

"A doctor can bury his mistakes but an architect can only advise his clients to plant vines" - Frank Lloyd Wright

"Architecture is the art of how to waste space" - Philip Johnson

"Architecture is frozen music" - Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Photo Gallery

"Caught in passing"

Striker/Walmsley House 1868

Albert Street beauty

Fort William Collegiate Institute - "they don't make 'em like they used to"